Superblue

It still feels like this is very much a means to strong arm UEFA at present and I still think something will end up being agreed across the board. The Premier League and English football pyramid in particular cannot cope financially without the big clubs propping it up. The only bargaining tool that UEFA currently hold is the French and German leagues turning down the proposals and it's almost certain that the likes of Bayern and Dortmund have been forced to turn it down due to their structure, otherwise they'd be in too. The news that Chelsea and City seem to be somewhat reluctant members is interesting because I think if any clubs were to perform a U-Turn it would be these two and UEFA would be hoping for this, but it's somewhat ironic that they're two of the clubs that in recent years UEFA have attempted to shackle and take power away from.

The reality is that people will still support Chelsea whether they're playing in the European Super League or the Conference. How many clubs stage protests against owners, managers staying or being sacked, players being sold, etc yet when it comes down to things they are still cheering the team on every week whether it's in the stadium or on TV. The reality check, rightly or wrongly and however poisonous it may sound, is for the small percentage of fans who do make a stand and turn their back on the club, these clubs will develop a brand that will over time give them a fan base that replaces those fans ten fold.

I still think this is merely a powerplay at present to strong arm UEFA to pander to these clubs more. It's of no coincidence this has been leaked the day before an apparent reform of the Champions League model was being announced by UEFA. However if this does force through a complete breakaway then I only see two options ending up happening. These clubs pull other clubs in with them to form their own domestic leagues to compete in alongside this, or they completely close shop and set up a model like the NFL where they end up eventually expanding to 24, 32 teams, whatever and sets up accordingly. If option 1 happens (very possible as the Premier League has already proven to be a successful brand, and the potential would be there to take things further and bring Rangers and Celtic into the mix), then you're right with the founders being guaranteed entry. I think having that in place for the first 3 years say isn't so much of a problem because they'll want to establish the competition but thereafter there would need to be greater merit placed on achievement. I'm sure there would be a pot of money to be allocated and shared between founding clubs anyway, even if some fall out of participation. If it went down option 2, then I personally think an NFL style model is better then two big leagues, because you end up with a clear rivalry created amongst your own division but your schedule factors in playing different teams each season to keep it fresh. As I said last night, I'm sitting on the fence for now with this to see how things develop. However, regardless of what happens and whether I'm for or against, the simple answer is it won't stop me supporting Chelsea. And for all the people that complain about it, the vast vast majority will continue to support their club if they joined this competition. It's foolish to think that these clubs won't make this work. The model won't be liked by most of Europe because they're not used to it but people in the end will accept it if their club is playing in it and it'll be branded to draw huge followings across key markets like America and Asia.

Another thing to note is that the "big 6" in England have wanted more power over decision making for a long time. The opposition to the 5 sub rule for this season always felt like a bit of a middle finger from the "lesser" teams across the league. The Premier League model has been proven and the attraction of it as a brand across the world shows that it still holds significant value to these big clubs. They'll still want a piece of that. And the other 14 clubs will not want to lose that, because it's value and appeal will be barely a fraction without the big clubs. The harsh reality is the big 6 don't need the rest of the Premier League, but the Premier League needs the big 6 if they want to maintain their current revenue streams. If the FA remove/ban these clubs from English competition, I think a breakaway version of the Premier League will almost certainly happen, operated by these six clubs.

I'm prepared to very much "sit on the fence" over this for the time being as more information will continue to filter out over the coming days and weeks. At the moment whilst things are so raw, there's always going to be a huge negative backlash around it. I don't mind the idea of breaking away from UEFA to form a cup competition amongst the elite sides in Europe. There has been huge issues with UEFA for years, yet they've been able to continue on their way because they consider themselves untouchable. So either breaking away from that, or forcing UEFA's hand to drastic reforms to me isn't a problem. The biggest issue is the potential of being excluded from competing domestically. As some have already mentioned, the emotional aspect of domestic rivalry can't be replicated. There have been huge reforms in sports which have been ridiculed or opposed but have turned out extremely successful and if anything enhanced the sport. The English Premier League is an example. Rugby Super League, T20 in cricket. But the biggest vibe this gives off is what happened to darts where the PDC broke off from the BDO and effectively took over as the leading brand within the sport. If this goes ahead I can see this in time taking over. The idea that football will continue to thrive without these clubs I feel is misguided. Don't get me wrong it won't just disappear, but the Premier League without the biggest clubs is barely a bigger pull than the Championship, as brutal as that may sound. The best players are at these "elite" clubs. It sounds like Bayern are joining, and I'd be surprised if PSG hold their ground on opposing it now it's out in public. They might get a few brownie points on a moral ground for not being a "founding club" but if this really does go ahead then they won't be left behind. The power that these top clubs hold has been completely underestimated for years and it seems like they're now prepared to use that power. With the money and power potentially involved, if these clubs are banned/removed from their leagues and UEFA what is stopping them from trying to poach other teams. Money talks at the end of the day. If the group say, approached Leicester, Villa, Leeds and Everton (as an example) to breakaway and create a 10 team domestic league to run in conjunction with the Super League, I'd be surprised if they chose not to. It doesn't take much to do something similar across the other top leagues in Europe and before you know it, this breakaway has 40-50 teams with all the elite players across Europe and retaining a domestic schedule to run alongside their proposed Super League format. They would potentially be in a position to set up their own type of World Cup before long too as an international competition.

The goals before half time were what killed the game. Tuchel needed to get the side back in at half time and re-group them. In the second half, it wasn't pretty but we were always going to be left susceptible to being countered when chasing the game with 10 men. The chances we had weren't taken, whereas there's were extremely clinically.

Not really. When you don't have a full contingent of players (not to mention the players that will play the game together) it's difficult to build that rhythm and work tactically in training. Due to Covid I'm pretty sure there are restrictions also to bringing players into training from the academy (not to mention they have games and players away on international too). Looking at the training on the Chelsea app last 2 weeks there's been about 10 players max training.

Hopefully this is a big wake up call the team need. Really sloppy first half and to be fair West Brom have been unbelievably clinical today, even in the second half we had chances that needed to go in (Alonso, Zouma) but it hasn't happened and we move on. Kovacic whilst overplaying a couple of times in the second half is the only one who can keep his head held high for me, pushed as much as he could to try and get us back in the game but far too many players not on it today. I don't think the lunchtime kick off helps mind when we only get one day of training after international returns. Be interesting to know how many players West Brom lost in the last 2 weeks, I'd imagine they retained most of their squad during the break.

I think we need to see how this group develop next season after a few months working with Tuchel. Like you mentioned whilst we don't currently have a primary goal source (I still think Werner can become that however), we have a number of attacking options who can all chip in goals and act as 'secondary' goal sources. If we didn't add offensively next season and rolled with what we already have I think that Tammy, Werner, Havertz, Mount, Pulisic and Ziyech are all very capable of being in that 8 - 12 goal bracket minimum, hopefully a couple of them pushing closer to 15-20. If you had that many options capable of that, maybe we don't need a primary goal source providing 20+ goals. The biggest thing is that Tuchel has us tactically organised and extremely difficult to score against. There are some similarities with that to Mourinho's first couple of seasons where we didn't really have a primary goal source but a number of players chipped in with goals (Lampard, Drogba, Gudjohnsen, Crespo, Duff, Robben, Joe Cole) and because those goals were shared around too, it made us an even bigger threat compared to say Spurs currently who are completely reliant on two players in their attack and usually fall apart if either of them are out.

I still think with a bit of patience, he'll come good here. He's had some horrendous misses this season culminating in last night and people have highlighted his stats on big chances missed, etc. I'd be more concerned if he wasn't getting any chances at all. His confidence might be shot in front of goal but I don't think it's affected his mentality to work hard and continuously strive to get into those goal scoring positions. I don't know what the stats were with Morata and Torres but their whole demeanour and body language on the pitch gave the impression that they were hiding and didn't want to shoulder any responsibility upon their already fragile mindsets but I don't get that impression with Werner. He also strikes me as someone who would feed off the fans when they're back in the stadium and I think just off his work rate, the fans will back him to come good. If he keeps getting into such positions and keeping his repetition, he will hit a purple patch at some point and that confidence in front of goal will return. I also don't think Werner's presence will deter us from buying a new striker. Giroud won't last forever and Tammy doesn't seem to be favoured by Tuchel, so it's almost certain a new striker will be looked at and Werner could easily line up with another striker in the team anyway.

Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse in the second leg when they're chasing the tie.

Unless CHO is injured and if we're really pushing for this, I would have taken Alonso off and had CHO at left wing back.

I would bring on Jorginho here and try to wrestle control back in the middle of the pitch.

Our inability to gain control in the midfield in this half has been really disappointing. Without that, we won't win this game.

Kovacic doesn't look as good a player next to Kante, compared to playing with Jorginho.

We need to change Tammy at half time with Ziyech or CHO and play Werner up top on the last man. Rudiger and Zouma at the back is a car crash but the biggest issue we have is our ball and decision making in the final third, has been really poor and to be honest is current the achilles heel since Tuchel has been here, it's not like we've been cutting teams open at will.

I'm surprised they didn't move Ziyech to the right for a bit tonight when we went to 4, and maybe played Pulisic or CHO centrally for a bit.

Ziyech actually I think will struggle under Tuchel if we continue with the back 3. It means his role is one of the two behind the striker in a more central area and I think this will be a struggle for him where he's very lightweight and won't have any time on the ball that he gets when playing wide right. Havertz has had similar struggles but I think at least with Havertz when he adapts to the pace and physicality he's younger and more dynamic and also has the body and size to eventually not get bullied in there.

Completely understand his season has been "stop-start" but every time I've seen him he seems to be really playing within himself, perhaps worried about injuries and his body holding up. Hope he can get a run together because I agree, when in form and fit he's a real weapon.

Pulisic is becoming increasingly worrisome. I can't remember a good performance he's put in this season. We all know what he is capable of from the back end of last season but he has to start finding some form soon.

My back garden is in better condition than this pitch and I've got 2 kids and a dog regularly trashing it.

I'd rather see Christensen, who is at least far more comfortable and composed on the ball, in the centre than Zouma.

Sheffield United at home if we get past tonight. Real good chance again to get to the semi finals and then there's a very real chance of going all the way.

As long as Mount is fit and continues to play regularly for Chelsea, Southgate will take him to the Euro's 100%. He already likes him and trusts him as he's been around the set up for the last 18 months. The other thing Mount has compared to those players is he can be trusted to be more disciplined and play deeper alongside say a Henderson or Rice. That gives England an additional option if they're chasing a game or trying to break a team down to replace a defensive minded midfielder with a more offensive minded one, but one that the manager can trust to put a defensive shift in also. I think if Southgate wants to try and include more offensive minded midfielders/wingers in his squad it is more likely to come at the cost of a striker, when they have somebody like Rashford who could play the central striking role if required. As a side note cannot deny the natural talent the likes of Foden and Maddison have, but Southgate isn't going to take too many players with him who haven't spent good amounts of time in squads and playing games for England. Time is running out to stamp a mark before the summer.

How Tuchel has spoken about Kante fills me with more hope that he will use him properly. He's never been better than the 2 title winning seasons for Leicester and us under Conte playing in a 2 man midfield with somebody who will afford him the opportunity to press and hunt the ball. I'm not sure he works as well with Kovacic to be honest who I think also needs to be afforded a similar freedom to his movement, but Jorginho and Gilmour in my opinion are more disciplined in their position in the midfield and can give Kante more freedom to play this way. On a side note, I still think we need a real top quality defensive minded midfielder for the balance within our squad.